Lawsuit Didn’t Stop|Cleveland Mayor’s Party

CLEVELAND (CN) – A rival in today’s mayoral election fruitlessly sued Cleveland’s mayor to try to stop him from hosting a Saturday block party outside the board of elections, which was open for early voters. Kenneth Lanci sued Mayor Frank Jackson and Frank G. Jackson for a Better Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Lanci, a millionaire businessman, claimed the party violated local election rules, which prohibit loitering at a polling place and attempting to influence voters. The complaint, filed Friday, asked the court to enjoin the block party, but Jackson and his campaign showed up at the Board of Elections on Saturday. It’s not Lanci’s first trip to court. In March 2011, he sued the Cleveland Browns and the NFL in March 2011, claiming they conspired to cause the league’s 2011 lockout. Jackson is expected to win his third four-year term today. Lanci’s lawsuit objected to the mayor’s plan to “hold a ‘block party’ providing ‘music, food and fun’ outside the Board of Elections at noon on Saturday, November 2, 2013. Individuals [are] allowed entrance into defendant’s ‘block party’ to the extent that they voted at the Board of Elections during the November 2 early voting session.” But the mayor partied down. Lanci was represented by Christian Bates of Corsaro and Associates in Westlake, Ohio.